Foreign Power Behind ‘Massive Cyberattack’ on X, Elon Musk Claims in Jaw-Dropping Interview
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk revealed Monday that social media platform X suffered a devastating cyberattack that he claims originated from Ukraine, causing widespread outages for the site’s 600 million monthly active users worldwide and raising questions about potential international cyber conflicts.
“Well, we’re not sure exactly what happened,” Musk said during an interview on Monday afternoon. “But there was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”
This bombshell announcement came after users had been experiencing significant disruptions throughout the day, TTOA previously reported.
The platform experienced widespread technical issues beginning as early as 5:30 a.m. ET, with users worldwide reporting inability to access the service or view posts.
Those who were already logged in encountered error messages stating “Something went wrong, try reloading.”
At its peak around 10 a.m. ET, the Daily Mail highlighted that over 40,000 users reported issues according to Downdetector, a website that tracks service outages and website failures.
Musk had earlier confirmed on X that the platform was being targeted by what he described as a “massive cyberattack,” suggesting the scale of resources involved pointed to either a “coordinated group” or potentially a foreign country.
By 5 p.m. ET, reports of problems had decreased to approximately 1,000, indicating X engineers had largely contained the attack and restored most functionality to the platform.
The timing of the cyberattack follows heightened tensions between Musk and Ukraine.
The world’s richest man recently labeled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “evil” and accused him of pushing for a “forever war” with Russia.
“Zelensky wants a forever war, a never-ending graft meat grinder. This is evil,” Musk stated previously, according to the Daily Mail.
He has also been vocal about his desire for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, stating in October: “We are sleepwalking our way into World War III with one foolish decision after the other.”
Daily Mail further noted that despite Musk’s claims about Ukrainian involvement, hacking group Dark Storm Team, known for its pro-Palestinian stance and targeting supporters of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
Cybersecurity group SpyoSecure stated they spoke with Dark Storm Team’s leader, who confirmed launching a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack against X.
A DDoS attack floods websites with fake traffic from bots, overwhelming servers and causing slowdowns or complete system crashes that prevent legitimate users from accessing services.In essence, Daily Mail noted that it creates an intentional traffic jam on the internet designed to render websites inaccessible.
The attack occurs amid an increasingly contentious online dispute regarding Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine.
Over the weekend, Musk posted: “my Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.”
This statement prompted Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Radosław Sikorski to respond that Poland pays approximately $50 million annually for Ukraine’s Starlink services, warning they might seek alternative providers if Starlink proves “unreliable.” Musk responded by telling Sikorski to “be quiet” and called him a “small man.”
Relations between Ukraine and the United States have significantly deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office in January. Daily Mail reported that last month, Trump called Zelensky a “dictator,” and their Oval Office meeting reportedly ended in acrimony.
By Monday evening, X service had largely been restored, with Musk confirming the platform was “back up and running” during his Fox Business interview.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Leave a Comment